Ramblings of a freelance IT Consultant working for some nice SME's, large organisations, resellers and the usual friends and family!
Bit of a technical, Marillion and King Crimson junky. That's where the money goes - 1's and 0's.
Click on the links on the right for my website or twitter.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Each team is introduced to the viewers, At the beginning of each introduction, the team member gives their name.
If they start with the word "Hello" they score a Bryant Factor of 100. If they start with "Hi" then score a Bryant Factor of 1. If they use neither word, for instance "I'm Fred Scumble" then score a Bryant Factor of 10.

Add up the team's total Bryant Factor, and the team with the highest BF (with a greater than 90% accuracy rate) wins.

There are (like Mornington Crescent*) some variations to consider:
* Colonials (especially US and Oz) are permitted to score 10 for a "Hi"
* Those with English as a second language (other than Americans!) may only score 10 for "Hello"
* personal judgement is key in these areas...

Sunday, February 20, 2011

There's something about this programme I cannot put my finger on, my grandfather was in Palestine in the 30's although he died too young for me to have talked to him about it, but I have an intangible connection that I cannot identify or specify. Maybe it's wishful thinking.

When the ordinary lives of people living in the near permanent trauma that is the Middle East are portrayed meaningfully on TV, I feel a disproportionate sadness for what has happened, and is happening. I hope that maybe the events shaking up the North African and Middle Eastern countries right now might lead to a breakthrough that changes the game.

I have my views, and for peace and quiet I'll not elaborate here. But a never ending cycle of revenge is unlikely to lead to peace. Sadat and Begin took an incredibly brave step in the 70's. Maybe it's time for a second such event?

Friday, February 18, 2011

An interesting read in the Telegraph today. They’ve been running a 70 years ago column with extracts from the wartime papers. This one really struck me, in times of war, things differ. But also, that the scenes described are not dissimilar to some of the scenes currently (and recently) seen in North Africa and the Middle East.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Then you should give serious consideration to cancelling any bank arrangements simultaneously.

My recent spat with VirginMedia (elsewhere here) is a case in point. By cancelling the DD I made sure that they could not take money to which I thought they were not entitled. It puts the provider on the back foot, chasing you, rather than you hassling a large, insular organisation for a refund (or chasing your bank under the DD mandate rules).

It's a tactic I have used on many occasions, have yet to regret it. A personal banking service to whom I can send an email requesting the cancellation (or a telephone banking service) aids a speedy execution.

One word of warning though. Some companies (energy providers) have a clause to cancel discount arrangements if you do this. As ever, read the terms and conditions, and make sure.

Take control, and use the weapons at your disposal with big business:
* your custom
* your money
* your use of social networks to publicise your complaints.

I've been asked to investigate your account and the charges that have been generated since moving to your new provider. While we received notice that the MAC had been used and given to your new provider, unfortunately we never received the notice that the work had been completed for us to close the account.

As payment was made for services up to the <date removed>, I have removed all outstanding charges from the account and ensured that the account is closed to prevent further charges being made in error. Your account is now closed and completely settled.

Please accept my sincere apologies on behalf of Virgin Media for any inconvenience caused in this matter.

Kind regards,

<name removed to protect the innocent!>Virgin Media NationalCustomer Complaints Team

Monday, February 14, 2011

“We're really sorry to hear that you're cancelling your Virgin Media service. To get the ball rolling, we'll be sending in a cancellation request for you and your service will be removed. We'll get in touch with you again to confirm your disconnection date but, just so you know, our target disconnection date is currently:

14-02-2011

Just so you know, if you're cancelling your phone service with us, you'll need to find another supplier, or you might be left without a working phone line!

If you're moving house and you've asked us to transfer your Virgin Media service to your new address, we'll be processing your order as soon as possible. If you've already given us your new address and telephone number, we'll start processing your order soon after the services at your old address have been cancelled. We know you,ll be busy with the move, but if you haven't given us your new details yet, do get in touch as soon as you can, so we can get on the case for you.

Kind regards,

Mark Davidson

Executive Director

Customer Care

Virgin Media”

Customer Care????? Incredible how you can put in a disconnection request for a no longer operating service.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Friday, February 11, 2011

This afternoon, after some interesting supplier negotiations on behalf of a client I had some “free time”. So I looked at the “problems I really ought to look at” list.

Item 1
Patching my first and oldest server. This machine is an elderly, but perfectly serviceable dual processor box running Windows 2003. Having successfully sorted out the horrendous .NET Framework updates last year it was still objecting to a few minor Windows patches applying properly. For once, the simple step of applying a few at a time fixed it all. I’m not going to try to work out why, just take satisfaction that the box is doing what it should for once!

Today I received a letter from Virgin Media requesting that I contact them about my account as there was no longer a valid DD in place through which they could collect funds.

There is no surprise to me in this as I left Virgin (once having been an NTLWorld customer, and now finally tired of their poor customer service) and as a precaution cancelled the DD at the bank.

I spoke to Megan and explained. She said I had to pay, I explained I was unwilling to pay when it included advance payment for a service I no longer used. That would be OK, she explained, as Virgin would take the money and then refund me with a cheque. Yeah, right I thought. I explained that on several occasions I had requested a final invoice from them and once I received that I would pay up. Apparently the final invoice *could* be emailed me to me, so she did. However when I asked if it covered the termination period and therefore did not overcharge me, it got less clear. It seems that having now requested a nett invoice, Virgin would be unable to email me the correct information, I would have to wait whilst she spoke to the cancellation team. Will this take long? I asked, just a couple of minutes I was told. Ok, said I, I'll hang on whilst you do that, but for 2 minutes.

Four minutes later I hung up.

Virgin, you have to do better. I have left you. I want a final invoice that covers the few days the service was in place before I moved to a better ISP (a capability already demonstrated), and the phone charges from the previous month. I am not willing to overpay you and wait for a refund cheque; you can work it out, you have the information; and I hazard a guess you have a few computers on which you can do the sums. Do them and let me know.